At 67, UNC’s Mack Brown joins a long list of football coaches working past retirement age
Bill Snyder was 66 years old when he decided to leave college football, ready for a life of retirement.
But three years later, he was back at his old school, in his old job at 69, ready to make coaching his life again.
Now 79, Snyder is still at it at Kansas State, although a 5-7 season could lead to a coaching change at the Big 12 Conference school. A member of the College Football Hall of Fame, Snyder returned to K-State in 2008 to coach in a stadium that bears his name and won a Big 12 championship in 2012.
That won’t be the case for Mack Brown, 67, a Hall of Fame member, in his return to North Carolina. It’s still Kenan Stadium at UNC. It’s also different than the Snyder situation.
Brown, after building a top 10 program at UNC, left for Texas after the 1997 season. He won a national championship with the Longhorns in the 2005 season, then left coaching after the 2013 season, seemingly content to spend his time on an ESPN set analyzing college football.
The oldest coaches
But Brown, after a five-year absence, is coming back and will be 68 when the 2019 season begins. He’s almost a year younger than Tar Heels basketball coach Roy Williams, giving UNC one of the oldest football and basketball coaching combinations among the Power 5 schools -- Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski is 71 and football coach David Cutcliffe is 64.
Snyder, the oldest coach in the FBS, is 79-49 is his 10 years since returning to coaching from his three-year sabbatical. He signed a five-year extension in August, which would take him into his 80s on the sideline.
“I could go on for quite some time if I don’t get fired and keep having an impact on the players in my program and my family is comfortable with it,” Snyder told the Kansas City Star in August. “I don’t see any particular end in sight.”
Things have changed for Snyder after a 42-38 loss to Iowa State, K-State blowing a 17-point lead in the fourth quarter of their last game and failing to qualify for a bowl. Questions again have arisen about his future.
And, inevitably, questions about the age issue.
Few college football head coaches will be older than Brown. Frank Solich of Ohio University is 74 and Joe Moglia of Coastal Carolina is 69 (Coastal basketball coach Cliff Ellis is 72). Rocky Long, 68, of San Diego State is a few months older than Brown.
Nick Saban
Then there’s Nick Saban of Alabama, 67, a few months younger than Brown.
Saban hasn’t lost much steam through the years and remains focused and fiery. In an interview this past summer with Steve Levy of ESPN, Saban said, “I want to do this for as long as I can do it. I enjoy it, I love it.”
At the same time, Saban is aware of all the demands, especially at Alabama, and told Levy, “I don’t want to ride the program down because I can’t continue to give my best.”
Even if Brown were to set himself up as something akin to a football CEO at UNC, with others handling many of the administrative tasks, the head coach has to be heavily involved in game-planning and practice, not to mention recruiting in the social media age.
There weren’t any text messages in 1988, Brown’s first year at UNC. He’s fortunate there wasn’t social media, given the 1-10, 1-10 records his first two seasons with the Tar Heels.
